Obstacle course 101

Antero Garcia, an English teacher at Manual Arts High, writes:

When it comes to teaching and learning, the modern teacher and the modern student have an uphill battle. Despite a well-enforced electronics policy, cellphones, MP3 players, handheld video games and other digital contraband are a constant distraction in the classroom. At the same time, there are the occasional classroom phone calls, the JROTC chants outside, and the frequent summons for students to check in at various campus offices, as necessary as some of these aspects of the school may appear to be.

These are challenges that every teacher and every student faces. That our school’s library has been closed for the current academic year may be a challenge unique to our school.

As our school continues discussions to improve learning, we are constantly reminded that ultimately, all of the varied reform efforts need to be about the interactions between a teacher and a student. The craft of being a teacher is pulling away the myriad weeds of distractions and white noise within our schools, and connecting with every student on a daily basis.

Comments

[Kate]

So if there's a no electronics policy in the classroom, and you can tell someone is using a phone/Blackberry/whatever, what do you do? How is the policy enforced?

[Robert]

about Obstacle course 101- I hate the intrusion and disruptions that all these "electronic essentials" cause. I was teaching H.S. (sp.ed sdc) and saw that these were the cause of losing so many "instructional minutes" regularly. It's been a couple of years since I left the scene and text messaging was beginning to flourish. A separate emerging problem.

I usually had students who were not real problems but they just could not keep their phones, ipods and cd players put away during class. The school did not have a good policy of enforcement that was uniformly practiced- like the non-enforcement of a dress code for the most part. I think they should be completely out-of-sight and use ALL DAY, except for lunch time. I had less problems as the semester went on as students knew what to expect and acted accordingly. It was something that each teacher handled in his/her own way. Consistency and fairness was the key.

Too many students just walk around between classes bud in the ears and completely detached, not ready at all for thinking about the next class or any school work. The classroom environment suffers and a tough job is made more difficult with the lack of practical approaches to keeping the education conditions as good as they can be. And I expect some study will reveal that hearing loss is rising as a by-product of audio devices turned too loud.

My old school hasn't much changed; still re-inventing the wheel according to colleagues still there. In 2 years, I recall only 2 surveys for improvement ideas were made, and one was by the union. Lot of lip service and not real progress on uniform discipline and rules, among other things. Tsk, Tsk.

Admin. was not a supportive component of he process, I quicky learned. You're all alone out there, for all practical purposes.